How should I approach an unseen poem?

Unseen poetry is a chance for you to show the examiner your skills at language analysis and closer reading. To start with an unseen poem, make sure you've got a couple of highlighters to hand in order to mark out the different techniques throughout. It is important to read through the poem a couple of times before you start analysis. Although the stress of the exam may make you feel like you need to dive straight in, an overall read through of the poem will enable you to analyse the stanzas in context, allowing you to understand the poem quickly. After a couple of read-throughs, it's a good idea to make a couple of notes to the side on a couple of main areas, such as the speaker, who the poem might be addressed to, and other important details such as any contextual information the poem may be related to (if this is required in the AO's.) Following this, you can start to move through the poem stanza by stanza, pulling out relevant poetic techniques such as the rhyme scheme, metaphors etc. You are then ready to move on to writing your answer.